Braintree, Mass.-based The Caribbean Sun Tanning Salon has joined the campaign to fund research on vitamin D deficiency and its link to an elevated risk of breast cancer.
“The public deserves fully funded vitamin D research, and we are doing our part,” says Michael Ryan, who owns Caribbean Sun with his wife, Christine.
The campaign, called “D-Feat Breast Cancer,” is earning support from indoor tanning salons across the country and in Canada, where clients are being asked to donate $1 to $5 to support vitamin D/breast cancer research. Caribbean Sun is hoping to collect about $600 in donations for the fundraising campaign over the next several weeks.
“We explain the campaign to the clients and tell them we are happy to take their donations,” Christine Ryan says. “They usually say that they didn’t realize that vitamin D deficiency can cause breast cancer.”
A 2006 paper published in Anticancer Research found that women with elevated vitamin D levels are 50 to 70 percent less likely to develop breast cancer. The American Journal of Epidemiology reported last year that women with high sun exposure levels, which is the most natural and abundant source of vitamin D, had half the risk of developing advanced breast cancer. Women with regular sun exposure also were less likely to die from breast cancer, according to a 2002 paper in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
